North Korea's words are now followed by action. This time Pyongyang targets one of its few symbols of cooperation with the South.

Also ahead, feeling much better. Good news from South Africa on the health of Nelson Mandela.

And...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. CONRAD MURRAY, CONVICTED OF MANSLAUGHTER: (SINGING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SWEENEY: A CNN exclusive, but why was the man convicted in Michael Jackson's death singing to our Anderson Cooper?

After weeks of threats, North Korea has taken its first action blocking hundreds of South Korean workers from getting to the Kaesong Joint Industrial Complex where they work. It's located 10 kilometers inside North Korea. The sprawling complex houses dozens of South Korean owned businesses that employ North Korean workers, but the managers come from the south.

This was the scene at the border today. Trucks seen leaving the North Korean side, but none being allowed in. Pyongyang says the same goes for South Korean workers, but South Korean workers currently in Kaesong have chosen to stay.

Well, Pyongyang's decision is really the first tangible sign of tensions between the two sides. Jim Clancy has been following all the developments from Seoul. He joins us now.

Jim, you know, we've been talking about how serious the war of words has been. What does this move today signal?

JIM CLANCY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it just signals that Kim Jong un, North Korea, is going to press its verbal and other attack on the South. It's going to try to upset the neighborhood. Certainly Pyongyang wants to see an end to UN sanctions. They want to have their way, so to speak. And it is long been their desire to have nuclear weapons, to be declared a nation equal with the others. But as they pursued all of this, they become more and more and more isolated. And so you see them ratcheting up the pressure on South Korea at a period in time when it's doing military maneuvers with the United States. The North feels threatened by those maneuvers and it's letting the world know.

You know, down at Kaesong, we were just visiting it -- at the site where the workers cross over -- that go across the DMZ into North Korea and the Kaesong industrial complex where they work. The South Koreans voiced a little bit of skepticism about what was happening. Their concern there that this is yet another signal that this young leader in North Korea is destabilizing the situation.

Now China, which is the most important supporter of North Korea, one of its only real links to the outside world, they're concerned too. Listen to what the foreign ministry had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HONG LEI, CHINESE FOREIGN MINISTRY SPOKESMAN (through translator): Chinese vice foreign minister Jun Ye Swei (ph) met with ambassadors of North and South Korea and the United States yesterday afternoon. During the meeting, Jun (ph) expressed serious concern over the current situation as a peninsula.

China hopes North and South Korea could solve relevant issues through dialogue and negotiations. And we also hope that the two countries could guarantee the legitimate rights and safety of all third party personnel, which includes Chinese citizens.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CLANCY: All right. Now, there are seven Chinese passport holders, we are told, in Kaesong tonight. Some of the workers, some of the managers and technical experts from South Korea have decided to stay there. About 100 were scheduled to come out, but only about 33 actually made the trip.

But even some of those who came out say that they're running short of supplies for the manufacturing of clothing, shoes, things like this, that there's no food in the commissary anymore. So it's not clear how much longer Kaesong is going to be able to operate -- Fionnuala.

SWEENEY: And the end game here on the part of North Korea, Jim, about the lifting of sanctions, perhaps at the expense of its nuclear program in terms of greater security regionally?

CLANCY: Well, you know, they definitely want to have those sanctions lifted, but that's not really their only problem. They have a huge problem when it comes to trade with the outside world. People, frankly, don't want to do any business with them. The sanctions make that even less likely, because companies don't want to get involved and then have the problem of coming under sanctions themselves for doing business.

But North Korea has very deep -- as you well know -- internal problems. It's a planned economy. It simply doesn't work. You know, North Korea was richer than the South during the 1950s. And today they are in abject poverty with a government accused of everything from counterfeiting, money laundering and drug dealing to try to raise capital. Kaesong was a stream of capital that came in, millions of dollars perhaps every month, but tonight it looks like that is closed off as well.

SWEENEY: So, essentially Pyongyang in a way guiding the international community, but the international community has to decide ultimately how it's going to respond to what seems to be an every day upping the ante on the part of North Korea.

CLANCY: Here's the problem, what Kim Jong un is doing is he's following the footsteps of his grandfather and his father: threatening, intimidating. And in the past the west has gone in, they tried to do deal with him, and it's never quite worked out. It never seems to work out. They evaporate like the plans to shut down the Yongbyun reactor.

North Korea said it wanted to do it, wanted a million tons of fuel oil in exchange. The west said, we'll do it. But when it came to verifying that process, they tangled with the United States. The deal never went through.

Now Yongbyun is going to be put back online. And I think that the west, certainly Japan, South Korea and the United States are looking at this saying, you know, we can't do this anymore. It doesn't work. Let's see how far sanctions can go? Let's see how far sanctions will work? And you can tell that Kim Jong un is mightily upset about that strategy. Back to you.

For all that, Jim Clancy, thank you very much indeed there in Seoul in South Korea.

Well, he was talking about Kaesong -- Jim -- and it is of course a vital source of income, as he mentioned, for North Korea. 123 South Korean companies operate in that complex. Now they're mostly textile makers along with machinery, electronics, and chemical manufacturers. There are more than 53,000 North Koreans working at the complex. More than 800 South Korean workers and managers. So why is it such a cash cow for Pyongyang?

Well, because the average wage for a North Korean worker is about $134 a month, but 45 percent of that is taken by the government. The complex generates about $2 billion a year in trade for the North and about $80 million in wages that is handed over to the government.

Well, North Korea's action comes a day after it announced it's restarting its Yongbyun nuclear plant. Pyongyang had agreed to suspend work there in 2007 as part of an aid for disarmament deal. Resuming operations there has sparked concern North Korea could be building nuclear weapons. But CNN's Christiane Amanpour who spoke to one expert who says that threat, though real, is not imminent.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: How easy will it be to restart the Yongbyun plant?

SIEGRIED HECKER, U.S. NUCLEAR EXPERT: They could restart it probably in six months to a year's time. They have, perhaps, four to eight bombs worth of plutonium. Right now, they cannot build any more plutonium bombs, because they've reprocessed all the plutonium. There's none in the pipeline. I think that is why they've said they would restart their reactor.

If they restart their reactor, six months to a year's time, the best they could do is to build one bomb's worth a year. However, it would take them about three years before they would actually to be able to reprocess more.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SWEENEY: Despite that, North Korea's latest nuclear threat sparks strong reaction from the UN and the U.S. Jill Dougherty has more on that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): North Korea hurls another threat, announcing Tuesday it will restart a nuclear reactor it shut down more than five years ago.

From the United Nations secretary-general, an ominous warning.

BAN KI-MOON, UNITED NATIONS SECRETARY-GENERAL: The crisis has already gone too far. Nuclear threats are not a game.

DOUGHERTY: In Washington, Secretary of State John Kerry meets with South Korea's foreign minister. The North's escalating belligerence topping their talks.

JOHN KERRY, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: Let me be perfectly clear here today. The United States will defend and protect ourselves and our treaty ally the Republic of Korea.

DOUGHERTY: Back in 2007, there were signs of progress, when the North's previous leader, Kim Jong Il, ordered the reactor at Yongbyon to be dismantled as parts of talks with the U.S. and its allies over his nuclear program. But soon after, nuclear tests continued. The latest one in February appeared to be the biggest yet.

VICTOR CHA, FORMER NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL MEMBER: The seismic signature was larger than the previous two tests, which means whatever they blew up had a higher yield to it, which probably represents an advancement.

DOUGHERTY: But U.S. officials say they have seen no signs yet the North is trying to restart that reactor. The consensus for now at least, it's more bluster than reality.

The U.S. has already parked a destroyer in the western Pacific that is capable of shooting down missiles. And it's ordered another one to remain on station in Asia.

Jill Dougherty, CNN, The State Department.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SWEENEY: North Korea was one of three countries to vote against the UN treaty to regulate the global trade of weapons. Despite its objection, along with Syria and Iran, the UN General Assembly voted to adopt the treaty, a move the UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon calls a victory for the world's people.

The arms trade treaty will govern the transfer of a variety of weapons. It's intended to make it harder for them to reach black markets or fall into the wrong hands.

The new treaty elsewhere has received a mixed reaction. Some shared Ban Ki-moon's sentiment. The group Human Rights Watch tweeted, "we did it. The world has been waiting a long time for this historic arms treaty and now we have it."

But as I said earlier, three countries voted against the treaty. Iran is currently under UN sanctions over its nuclear program, including an arms embargo that prohibits other countries from its weapons.

North Korea is under a similar arms embargo as part of UN sanctions over its nuclear weapons and missile programs. And the Syrian government has been relying on weapons from Russia and Iran in its two year civil war against opposition forces.

Russia, along with 22 other countries abstained from the vote.

Coming up on News Stream, a jailhouse serenade from the doctor convicted in singer Michael Jackson's death.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MURRAY: (SINGING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SWEENEY: CNN talks to Dr. Conrad Murray about his role in the super star's death as Jackson's promoter comes under scrutiny for hiring him.

And also ahead on News Stream, the education of girls takes off in Pakistan, but there is still serious concerns about what will happen in the future.

And we go live to South Africa for an update on the condition of former president Nelson Mandela who is being treated for pneumonia.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SWEENEY: China's Xinhua reports another man has died of a new strain of bird flu in China, bringing the total number of victims so far to three. The H7N9 avian flu virus is a strain not previously detected in humans. Chinese authorities are trying to find the source of the infection, but they stress there are no signs of transmission between any of the victims to other people. They say that suggests the virus isn't very contagious.

Malaysians go to the polls in the next few weeks in a general election predicted to be the closest in years. Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak dissolved parliament paving the way for a national vote. The coalition he had, has run Malyasia since independence in 1957, but concern about corruption, crime and the rising cost of living have some analysts predicting the opposition headed by the former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim could win.

At least six people have been killed, 72 wounded, in an insurgent attack on an Afghan government building in the southwest province of Farah. Police tell CNN that first two suicide attackers detonated their explosives, then two others were killed in a gun battle with Afghan security forces. They're still fighting at least two more militants who have taken cover in the courthouse.

Well, Afghanistan is having to deal with other challenges. Traditionally, there has been great inequality between men and women, but that is beginning to change. More young girls are going to school now than they have for decades. CNN's Anna Coren reports on the progress for one girl's school in the capital Kabul.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNA COREN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A decade ago, this scene in Afghanistan did not exist: classrooms filled with eager young girls.

Under the Taliban, they were banned from going to school. And when the war kicked off in 2001, only 900,000 boys were getting an education. Now there are more than 8 million students across the country, of which 40 percent are girls.

ALISTAIR GRETARSSON, UNICEF: Education in this country has a momentum. And it's owned by the Afghan people themselves in the communities themselves. And that's extremely important.

COREN: At Suwena (ph) girl's school in Kabul there are too many students. UNICEF has funded the construction of more classrooms. But to accommodate everyone, the girls arrive in two shifts.

Principal Qamar Hadie has been a head mistress for more than three decades and set up this school five years ago.

QAMAR HADIE, PRINCIPAL (through translator): I'm very proud of all my students. I have faith in the future of Afghanistan knowing they will be an important part of our society.

COREN: A belief embrace by these young students.

"I want to study hard, so I can be a doctor," says 10-year-old Hainifa (ph). "I want to serve the people of my country."

Her classmate Shahiba (ph) explains, "I'm going to be a teacher. I want to make other children grow."

Well, the number of girls attending school here in Afghanistan is quite extraordinary, the problem is keeping them. Under strict Islamic customs, once a girl reaches adolescence, she's not allowed to go into public without a male relative, which obviously limits her education and her future.

But in a male dominated society, these young women know full well what an education will bring.

UNIDENTIIFED FEMALE: If we choose every thing that we want to become in the future, that will make our country better.

COREN: But at the back of their mind, the looming question: what will happen when U.S. forces pull out at the end of next year? And how will it affect the future of their eduction?

GRETARSSON: Obviously, nobody knows exactly what's going to happen over the coming years, but we believe that investment and increased and continued investment in basic social services, and very importantly in education, is really going to be the key to achieving a long-term stable and peaceful Afghanistan.

COREN: And these girls agree.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Afghans are fearful the Taliban will return and civil war will break out again. But we have to work hard, rebuild, and not let this happen to our country.

COREN: Anna Coren, CNN, Kabul.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SWEENEY: Hostilities have resumed across the Israel-Gaza border, ending a truce struck after the fighting in November. Israel says two rockets from Gaza hit the Jewish state on Wednesday. They came after overnight Israel air strikes on Gaza. Israel defense forces say war planes struck two terror targets, but Palestinian security officials claim they hit empty land. There are no reports of casualties or damage from either side.

The South African government has just released an update about Nelson Mandela's condition. For the latest, I'm joined by CNN's Dan Rivers in Johannesburg. Dan, good news.

DAN RIVERS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Certainly seems to be pretty encouraging Fionnuala. Yeah, I mean they're being very, very circumspect with how much information they do give out, but here's what we've had in the last couple of hours. It says that he continues to make steady improvement in hospital. His doctors say he continues to respond satisfactorily to treatment and is much better now than he was when he was admitted to hospital on the 27th. He's been visited by family, it says, and he continues to make steady progress.

So, clearly, you know, he's still in hospital. He's 94. Any kind of infection or illness at that age is potentially dangerous, but this is all very encouraging, very positive. I can only caution, possibly that, you know, he's not being discharged from the hospital. He absolutely clearly not completely recovered and out of the woods.

SWEENEY: And clearly he was quite deep into the woods, one would suspect, given that this is the most encouraging statement we've had to date.

RIVERS: It certainly is, yeah. I mean, the kind of statements we had a few days ago was that he was responding to treatment and is comfortable and is breathing without difficulty. There was also another statement talking about him having had a breakfast, you know, giving a kind of sense of him, you know, beginning to regain appetite and feeling a bit better. But this is much more definitive, yes, saying he is much better.

So, you know, I'm sure all around the world and nowhere more so than here in South Africa, people are praying, keeping their fingers crossed and hoping that he will pull through at the grand old age of 94.

SWEENEY: And hoping, perhaps to see a photograph at some stage.

Dan Rivers, thank you there for joining us from CNN Johannesburg.

There's more to come on News Stream, the U.S. President proposes a new initiative to explore inner space. We'll tell you what area he wants America's best brains to focus on.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SWEENEY: U.S. president Barack Obama has announced a new $100 million push to study the human brain. One aim of the initiative is to use recent advances in science to improve the understanding and treatment of brain disorders. Lisa Sylvester has more on the new plan.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALAN ALDA, ACTOR: You want to do it? Go ahead.

LISA SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In this demonstration with actor Alan Alda, 18-month-old Kendall (ph) shows she has mastered the art of imitation.

ALDA: Good.

SYLVESTER: Again and again, she takes turns copying what the grownups do. Scientists at the Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences at the University of Washington have been studying the toddler and baby brain and have made astonishing discoveries.

ANDREW MELTZOFF, INSTITUTE FOR LEARNING AND BRAIN SCIENCES: What the new science is showing is they're born learning, born connected, born learning from others and want to be like you.

SYLVESTER: Children are sponges, soaking up new information, language, culture, accepted behavior, what's right and what's wrong.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That first 2,000 days when the child is learning more than they will ever learn in any other five-year period in their entire lives.

SYLVESTER: But understanding how the brain works, how we imitate, retrieve a memory or learn a language is still a mystery. The White House announced a $100 million initiative, a push to map the human brain for the first time. The hope is that it will lead to new treatments for Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, brain injuries or epilepsy.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We can identify galaxies lightyears away, we can study particles smaller than an atom, but we still haven't unlocked the mysteries of the three pounds of matter that sits between our ears.

SYLVESTER: Ed Boyden is with the synthetic neurobiology group at MIT. He says there are one billion cells in the brain operating at a very high speed.

ED BOYDEN, MIT: We're talking about an enormous amount of information every second, comparable to the scale of, say, the entire Internet over brief periods of time being generated by a single human brain.

SYLVESTER: But why with a tight government budget should we spend millions on mapping the brain now? Well, the science is there, and researchers hope the federal dollars will be used to create new jobs and develop new technologies that will one day allow us to see how neurons work in the living brain.

DR. FRANCIS COLLINS, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH: There are 100 million Americans who suffer from diseases that affect the brain. It's costing us $500 billion each year to give health care to those individuals. If we are ever really going to make progress, we have to build this foundation of understanding how the brain works.

SYLVESTER: The human brain, we use it every day, but know so little about it.

It is still up to Congress to approve the money for this project, but it would bring together some of the best minds of the private sector and government. The president's bioethics commission will also weigh in to make sure that this research is all being done in a proper way.

Lisa Sylvester, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SWEENEY: A small airline has made a big decision to introduce a controversial charge for passengers. You may be used to paying extra for excess luggage but Somoa Air has recently begun charging passengers by their weight. The airline says it's in the interest of keeping prices fair. Passengers pay a fixed price per kilogram that varies according to the root that Samoa Air's chief executive spoke to us earlier.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS LANGTON, SAMOA AIR CEO: You know that what makes airplanes work is weight. It always has been weight. And it doesn't matter whether it's a big airplane or a small airplane, it all comes down to how much weight you've got sell over a given sector to pay for that sector. So what we're -- we're in the vendoring business here. We're actually selling seats, we're selling weight. And it's always been the issue, because nobody wants to go there on account of how you -- may be confrontational or seem to be discriminatory or something like that, but in fact you can see very quickly that there's only one fair way of paying for what you carry on an airplane, which is weight. And that's to pay it by the kilo.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SWEENEY: The fares have been in place since November. Bear in mind Samoa Air flies just three aircraft -- two 10 seater planes and one four seater.

There's much more ahead on News Stream. We will show you the argument over who is to blame for Michael Jackson's death as a civil trial gets underway to try to find the truth.

And perfection is hard to come by anywhere, especially in the world of sport. We'll tell you about a Japanese baseball player who came so close, yet was so far.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SWEENEY: I'm Fionnuala Sweeney at CNN Center. And you are watching News Stream. These are your world headlines.

After announcing it will restart its nuclear reactor, North Korea is now preventing South Korean workers from entering a jointly run industrial zone. The complex houses dozens of South Korean businesses that employ North Korean workers, but the mangers come from the south.

South Africa's presidential office says former leader Nelson Mandela is making steady improvement in hospital. The 94-year-old has been receiving treatment for pneumonia after being admitted a week ago. It's the second time in the past month that Mandela has been in hospital.

A major inquiry into child sex abuse in Australia is now open. Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced the commission last year. It was in response to growing allegations of abuse, some said to involve the Catholic church. The inquiry expects to hear more than 5,000 submissions.

Indian police say a massive attack has injured four sisters injured four sisters in Uttar Pradesh. CNN IBN reports two men on motorcycles used water guns to spray acid on the women. Three of them are teachers. They were walking home from school at the time of the attack.

The drama of pop star Michael Jackson's life and death is headed back to the courtroom. Jackson's family is suing his concert promoter. They claim AEG was negligent in hiring the doctor subsequently convicted of causing the singer's death. Miguel Marquez has more.

Like so many things in Jackson's life and death, it's been a super- sized trial, reports the Jackson family seeking from AEG as much as $40 billion for the wrongful death of the 50-year-old King of Pop, reports that the Jackson camp denies.

KEVIN BOYLE, JACKSON FAMILY ATTORNEY: The jury feels the family deserves $40 billion, that's what they're going to get.

But I can tell you no demand has been made by the Jackson family for $40 billion from AEG. That is just not true.

MARQUEZ: At the center of the trial, who hired Dr. Conrad Murray, found guilty in 2011 of involuntary manslaughter for injecting the insomniac pop star with a lethal dose of the anesthetic Propofol?

PIERS MORGAN, HOST, "PIERS MORGAN TONIGHT": What do you think, as his mother, caused his death?

KATHERINE JACKSON, MICHAEL JACKSON'S MOTHER: I don't know. All I know is they used Propofol, and they shouldn't have used it.

MARQUEZ: The plaintiffs, Jackson's mother Katherine and his three kids, blame AEG.

Its lawyer says there was never a signed contract, and Murray, who was never paid anything, served only at the pleasure of Michael Jackson.

MARVIN PUTNAM, AEG ATTORNEY: If you look at the draft, explicitly, is that he was chosen by Michael Jackson, he'd be there at Michael Jackson's behest. Michael Jackson was the only person who could get rid of him at will.

Also on the list but not expected to testify, the artist Prince, who has his own history with AEG.

Musician Quincy Jones could take the stand to testify how much Jackson could have earned if he had lived.

Miguel Marquez, CNN, Hollywood

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SWEENEY: Well, Dr. Conrad Murray was sentenced to four years in jail for the involuntary manslaughter of Michael Jackson. He's refused to testify in the trial against the concert promoter and explained why in an unusual call with CNN's Anderson Cooper.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MURRAY: Well, certainly I believe that I was not given due process. I think that the judge was clearly not impartial. I think that the district attorney David Baldwin did something that was so absurd, he altered evidence in open courtroom. Could you imagine that? I -- if I had to do this again, that's the one thing I would never do. I would never sit quietly in the courtroom and have a district attorney tear open and destroy the integrity of evidence when there was no reason to do that.

That was not the only time. There were so many issues of irregularity and obstruction of justice on his part.

COOPER: Regardless of your appeal. What do you want to do? If -- whether you get your medical license back or not, say you don't get your medical license back. What do you want to do?

MURRAY: Well, Anderson, I want to continue to contribute to humanity and this world in a very significant way. I wanted every young child, every mother and father, uncle and aunt, to satisfy dreams that they would have and goals that they want to satisfy. I want to contribute to that.

COOPER: What does that mean?

MURRAY: I want to motivate people and to continue to do selfless acts of humanity and continue with my philanthropic traits towards helping mankind.

COOPER: How likely do you think it is that you can get your medical license back?

MURRAY: Anderson, I pray that, you know, hopefully there will be justice in this case because so far, I have only encountered injustice, and if I would prevail in my appeal and given another chance, I will do my utmost to totally set this aside and hopefully get back on the track where I will continue to help.

Remember I practiced for more than 20 years, Anderson. I never had a public reprimand, never had a medical board warning in all the licensed states, never had any litigation brought against me, nor medical malpractice lawsuits and I have saved a lot of lives and helped a lot of patients. Those who were with money and those who weren't, it did not matter to me.

COOPER: Let me ask you.

MURRAY: No one was turned back from my office.

COOPER: Let me just ask you finally. You say you were a friend of Michael Jackson, you cared about Michael Jackson, you cared about his children. That's how originally you took care of his children at a hotel in Vegas. That's how they initially met you. His children are now suing this company, AEG Live. There are some people who would say well, if you were -- really cared about them, why not testify about what you know in this lawsuit?

MURRAY: If I testify, I will testify very honestly. It is a sad thing when I look at what's going on in television because if Michael was alive he would be absolutely upset, he would be so unhappy with what is happening. Michael said to me I no longer want to be a bank for my family. But all you see is the continuation of that.

He had some real pains and I have had some stories of Michael that he has shared with me that I have not shared with the world. That's how it is. We have very, very humble lives and we both experienced pain.

You know what describes me, Anderson. Let me share something for you. This is important to me.

(Singing) He is a little boy that Santa Claus forgot, and goodness knows he did not want a lot. He wrote a note to Santa for some crayons and a toy. It broke his little heart when he found Santa hadn't come in the streets. He envied all those lucky boys but goodness knows he doesn't want a lot. I'm so sorry for that laddie who hasn't got a daddy. He's a little boy that Santa Claus forgot.

That song tells my story. That's how I grew up. I had no Christmases. I had no toy. I had nothing. I was destitute for years. But as I grew up, my heart has been whole and my heart says to help, and all I do is to give. I want to give.

COOPER: Do you think...

MURRAY: I hope that this world could be a better place.

COOPER: Do you think money is at the root of -- I mean, you talked about the Jackson family, that things you had heard, that you were concerned about this trial, about the -- are you saying you think a quest for money by the family is partly to blame for this?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't think Dr. Murray should be addressing the AEG trial at this time.

MURRAY: One thing I would like to say, I wish that one day I get a chance to tell all Michael's fans, people who really, really love him, what happened to Michael. They would really want to know. If they do find out, their heart would cringe and they would be in blatant pain.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SWEENEY: Murray is due for release from jail in October later this year.

Now Champion's League football takes center stage in Europe later today. Amanda Davies joins us with more. And what's the schedule looking like?

AMANDA DAVIES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Fionnuala.

Well, there are two matches left to be played in this round. It's very much a case of friends reunited later on Wednesday. And ahead of Real Madrid's quarterfinal first leg tie against Galatasaray, Didier Drogba has said he can see his former Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho heading back to work at Stamford Bridge.

Drogba will line up for the Turkish side Galatasaray in Spain looking to reclaim the trophy he won with Chelsea. And Mourinho will be in the opposite dugout as the Real Madrid manager. But the Portuguese coach refused to discuss his future in the pre-match press conference as he looks to guide Real Madrid to their 10th European crown.

Well, the tournament's surprise package Malaga take on the reigning German champions Borussia Dortmund. And while Jurgen Klopp is urging the German side to seize this great opportunity, his opposite number just wants his side to keep their hopes alive heading into the second leg.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MANUEL PELLIGRINI, MALAGA COACH (through translator): We are both teams that give great importance to ball possession. They like to keep the ball for long periods, giving more importance to the creative and defensive game. In my opinion, that is very important for the crowd. And I hope they will get to see a great Champion's League tomorrow.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DAVIES: There is some injury concerns over Barcelona's Lionel Messi. The four time world player of the year has undergone a scan on a hamstring injury on Wednesday after being substituted at halftime of Barca's last eight encounter against Paris Saint-Germain. He could be out until the end of the season. The 25 year old Argentine scored his side's first goal in their 2-2 draw against the Ligue 1 leaders.

Last season's beaten finalists Bayern Munich have put themselves into a great position to make it through to the semis. They beat Juventus 2-0 in the night's other game.

But David Beckham thinks the second leg between Barca and PSG in Spain is still there for the taking.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID BECKHAM, PSG MIDFIELDER: And we have to be ready to play football, because you know they play football beautifully. So, you know, I think we played them really well tonight. And we have to go there with the confidence to win the game.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DAVIES: Manchester City's Carlos Tevez has avoided jail after pleading guilty to driving while disqualified and without insurance. The 29-year-old faced up to six months in prison, but has been handed 250 hours of community service and a fine of $1,600.

And finally it was so close yet so far in Major League Baseball for the Texas Ranger Yu Darvish. In his first season, the 26 year old came within one out of pitching a rare perfect game. In other words, he pitched eight and two-thirds of a perfect innings against the Houston Astros, missing just that final third. And it was Marwin Gonzalez who grounded a clean single through the pitcher's legs through celebrated right-hander from Japan struck out a career high 14 as well as Texas beat the Astros 7- 0.

And to put this achievement into context, there have only been 23 perfect games in over 135 years. That really is quite something.

I loved it, Fionnuala, afterwards when people were saying, oh, you know, you must be devastated to be close yet so far. And he said, well, at least it means I can go and have a sit-down now.

SWEENEY: And he was also very, very classy in how he handled it.

What do we mean, essentially, for the uninitiated by a perfect game?

DAVIES: It means that you're going throughout the whole game, throughout the whole nine innings without anyone getting to a base. And so as I said, he was eight and three-quarters through that. So just that final quarter without -- it really was quite something. He did have to call in some support from his team's defense along the way, but just missed out at that final. But we did see a couple at the end of last season, but that's such a small number in 135 years is quite incredible.

SWEENEY: It is. And it's also a great human story as well.

Amanda in London, thank you.

Now still ahead on News Stream, a lingering legacy. Political candidates hit the campaign trail in Venezuela, but can they escape the ghost of Hugo Chavez?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SWEENEY: Well, to Venezuela where a significant presidential campaign is underway. Two men vying to replace the late Hugo Chavez. And as the candidates hit the trail, the legacy of Mr. Chavez seems to be everywhere as Rafael Romo explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's been almost a month since President Hugo Chavez died of cancer, but he still seems to be everywhere in Venezuela. His image appears constantly on national TV. Public officials thank Chavez for the completion of housing projects. This woman says Chavez didn't die, but is alive inside every Venezuelan. And take a look at this video, it suggests Chavez is in heaven in the company of important historical figures like Venezuelan independence hero Simon Bolivar.

These are the messages Venezuelan voters are exposed to daily as they get ready for the April 14 presidential election. Chavez's hand-picked successor, former foreign minister Nicolas Maduro, launched his campaign in Chavez's hometown of Sabaneta surrounded by a sea of Chavez loyalists in red.

The opposition is crying foul, alleging Maduro's campaign is using public resources for propaganda purposes.

STALIN GONZALEZ, CAPRILES CAMPAIGN COORDINATOR (through translator): Where is the money coming from? From the campaign of lies. Isn't it true that the communications ministry is putting Maduro on the state channels? Isn't it true that he's using the Venezuelan state airplanes for his campaign? Isn't it true that they're using the resources of the Venezuelan state TV for their campaign events?

ROMO: Opposition candidate Enrique Capriles is challenging Maduro to a debate, but so far the invitation has been ignored.

The campaigns are accusing each other of illegal financing tactics. The opposition says Maduro forces public employees to donate one day's salary for campaign spending while the acting president accuses his rival of financing his campaign with money from foreign bankers who want to get rid of the socialist government in Venezuela.

Rafael Romo, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SWEENEY: And still ahead on News Stream, taking the term dressing to impress to a whole new level. How mobile technology is becoming very fashion forward.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SWEENEY: William Shakespeare once wrote that April puts, quote, a spirit of youth in everything, but the season of rebirth seems to be taking its time in the poet's native Britain, in fact, across much of Europe. You'd be excused for thinking it is still winter.

Ralitsa Vassileva explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RALITSA VASSILEVA, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It feels more like winter than spring in Europe. An arctic chill has most of the continent in an icy grip. Many are sick of the cold. At Berlin Zoo, even the penguins are miserable.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Today we were planning to do our spring tour around the zoo and now it feels like winter again. Many animals feel the same as I do. They paw their hooves, flap their wings. The penguins too.

VASSILEVA: It's so cold that snow bunnies edged out snowmen. And the spring flowers were wearing a coat of snow. In fact, Easter was colder than Christmas. The UK experienced the coldest March in more than 50 years.

Why is it so cold? Meteorologist Brandon Miller says it has a lot to do with global warming. Higher temperatures had melted 80 percent of the Artic's ice over the last 30 years or so.

BRANDON MILLER, METEOROLOGIST: What that does is it weakens our polar vortex, because the polar vortex depends on that temperature grade, that change in temperatures form the poles to the tropics. If that lessens, the polar vortex lessens -- think of the polar vortex like a belt that keeps that cold Arctic air trapped in the Arctic. And when that belt loosens, the cold air flows down into North America, Asia, Europe in this case. And as long as Arctic oscillation is negative, then what we're going to see is more cold air spilling down.

VASSILEVA: As climate continues to change, many scientists say we're in for more extreme weather like this one.

Ralitsa Vassileva, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SWEENEY: So let's get more. Mari Ramos is at the World Weather Center. Mari, what's the prognosis?

MARI RAMOS, CNN WEATHER CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know what, at least for the rest of this week in the short-term forecast those temperatures will remain below freezing. So that hasn't changed much, or I should say below average. And in many cases in the overnight hours, still right at freezing or below.

The official numbers are in and yes, March in the UK was the coldest since 1962. It's the second coldest March since they've been keeping records. So that's pretty significant. And the average temperature was well below what it should be for this time of year. And actually March, which is pretty interesting, was colder in the UK than December, January, or February which is supposed to be the thick, the dead of the winter months. So that's int he UK alone. But this cold has spread across Europe.

I want to show you something really interesting, Fionnuala. Take a look at this. This is a map showing us the snow cover across Europe. And this is back at this time last year, back in 2012. And you can see -- remember we were talking about how a lot of the ski resorts didn't have enough snow to even open up their doors or they had to open very, very late and close early.

So this is late March back in 2012. So about a year ago. That was then and this is now. It really is tremendous to see the difference. We were wowed when we saw these images. We knew they were going to be impressive, but this is really something, especially over the UK. Look at that, the snow all the way down even toward London, across much of Central and Eastern Europe. That snow cover is so significant.

Let's go back to 2012 and you'll see it one more time. Look at that. This is last year and then this is this year. And that brings us to about an increase of 750 percent as far as snow cover compared from this year to last year, which is tremendous and pretty much unheard of. And it's really hard to try to go back and try to find the records for that, but from what we know, this is really unprecedented when it comes to snowfall.

The other thing is, that's all that snow there in the north. You can't really see the rain that's falling, right? But there has been quite a bit of rainfall across the southern tier of Europe. And the southern tier of Europe in October of last year was in a drought, in some cases, across Portugal and Spain in extreme drought. And they've been in a drought for a long time, also parts of Italy.

This is very significant because that has changed dramatically as well, especially as we head into the Iberian Peninsula. This is one of the biggest things.

Now Spain has had its wettest March on record, ever, so the difference is amazing, astounding really. There are only a couple of areas that are still considered to have a weak drought, even back over here, back over into the southern portion of France where you guys haven't had as much rain or snow as some of the other areas.

But overall as we head back over toward Italy and even in through southeastern Europe, the change is phenomenal when it comes to the comparison from last year to this year when it comes to rainfall.

So we'll have to see how this all plays out now that the spring thaw is beginning, because once the temperatures warm up and all of that snow that we saw there in the north begins to melt, those rivers are going to get pretty full so there's another potential of flooding with that that comes along and then we'll have to see how the temperature plays out in the next few months.

But for this week, still cold. Fionnuala back to you.

SWEENEY: Those pictures at the beginning, that graphic very, very hard to believe, but unfortunately true. Mari, thank you.

RAMOS: Sure.

SWEENEY: Unfortunately true. Of course, not if you're a skier.

But also very, very hard to believe is that it is 40 years since the first mobile phone call was made. And as the times have changed, so has the phone. This is what it used to look like -- big and bulky. And now we're all used to the small and slick.

Of course, we're not just making phone calls with them anymore, smartphones have become a big part of many of our lives from taking photos and video to instant messages. And very soon you won't even need to carry your phone with you. Mobile technology is becoming something you can wear. And we're not just talking about Google Glasses here as Laurie Segall reports, it is a trend set to dominate the industry.

HOSAIN RAHMAN, CEO, JAWBONE: I think what's happened is that sensors and computing power and connectivity has gotten to a point it is cheap enough and small enough you can put it in lots of different things.

SEGALL: For example, Rahman's company, Jawbone, makes a bracelet they call the up (ph). It syncs to an app to track your health, from how well are you sleeping to how active you are. Jawbone Up and other devices like it are part of what's known as the quantified self movement, using tech attached to your body to tell what's going on inside of it.

RAHMAN: We don't know that much about why do we sleep a certain way, why do we feel a certain way, how much do we actually move, how that all relates to each other.

SEGALL: Another wearable item, a brain wave tracking headband called Muse. It syncs with games that tests how well are you focusing and how relaxed you are.

ARIEL GARTEN, FOUNDER, INTERAXON: When you are able to track or sense your brain activity, you can do things to improve it. You can do exercises to improve your cognitive functioning and decrease your stress.

SEGALL: The developer envisions a very different use for this kind of technology.

GARTEN: Hopefully in the future, we'll be able to play games and control appliances in the environment using only our minds.

SEGALL: Some wearable tech tracks your life without tracking your health like the Memoto camera.

In the future, we're all going to be walking around with smartphone- connected clothing.

OSKAR KALMARU, COFOUNDER, MEMOTO: It is true. Just with the smart phones are like a cyber device and adding extra devices to your true self, it is like a cyber way of life.

SEGALL: The camera feels a bit James Bond...

UNIDETIFIED MALE: It's been coded to your palm print so only you can fire it.

SEGALL: ...but the company points out it is not exactly hidden. If you want to find someone, they say there are better tools. One entrepreneur is putting the wearable technology inside your clothing.

ASHER LEVINE, DESIGNER: What we thought to do is embed it in the items you may lose or left behind or really important items. As you walk away, this is your proximity meter, and it will flash green if you're close. And it will go into yellow and orange and then red and then eventually beep if you have walked too far away.

SEGALL: Still, most of these have yet to become household names. Google Glass, which would put smartphone capabilities in your line of vision, aren't on the market yet. Analysts say that is the kind of product that would make wearable tech universal.

SARAH ROTTMAN EPPS, ANALYST, FORRESTER: The number one thing that would move wearables from niche to mainstream is backing of a major consumer platform, namely Apple and Google. If either of those companies execute well, they could define the market around their product.

SEGALL: Laurie Segall, CNN Money, Austin, Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SWEENEY: Well, finally as long as there has been alcohol, there have been people doing really stupid things. Case in point, Lin Fin (ph) in China. He doesn't remember how, but he climbed up a pole that carried high tension electrical wires and then he decided to go on a high wire walking act. The power company who handles the electricity, fortunately for him, and he eventually fell onto an air cushion on the ground. Just like that.

He was bruised, but otherwise unhurt. But hurt from perhaps his ego. But then again, maybe not. But right now doesn't seem to be too worried about anything.

Advice: don't try this at home.

That is News Stream. World Business Today is next. Thanks for watching.